Ecotricity boss blasts David Cameron over 'broken promises'

2:00pm Thursday 1st May 2014

By Jane Leigh

PRIME Minister David Cameron has been blasted by Stroud eco-warrior Dale Vince for breaking promises made before the last election.

Mr Vince, founder of Stroud-based green energy firm Ecotricity, said: “Before the last election, David Cameron promised to lead the greenest government ever - that promise lies in tatters now, as he prepares to fight the next election dancing to the tune set by UKIP.”

The attack comes after the Tory manifesto pledged to stop any further green levies paid by bill-payers for onshore wind power, and to change the planning system to allow local councils to block wind farms which do not already have planning consent, if they win the 2015 general election.

Mr Vince added: “It’s a shameful abdication of Mr Cameron’s responsibility as prime minister, to put his party before the country in this way.

“We need an energy policy that makes sense, environmentally and economically, one that can give us energy independence, lower bills and abate climate change. What we have instead is one that only makes sense politically, an energy policy for the Tory party.”

Meanwhile the South West Green Party has condemned the Tories for “abandoning onshore wind”, despite a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which concludes that clean energy will have to increase threefold by 2050 if the earth is to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Dr Molly Scott Cato, lead Green Party European candidate in the South West, said: “By abandoning onshore wind, the Tories’ energy policy is spinning dangerously out of control. Their fixation on subsidising fossil fuels over renewable energy demonstrates they have either not read the IPCC report or prefer to bury their heads down a very deep shale gas well and ignore the recommendations of the world’s leading climate scientists.”

Neil Carmichael, Conservative MP for Stroud, said: “The fact is that this is the greenest government. Just recently we’ve launched a massive project for onshore and offshore wind power to be developed, and far from reneging on promises we’re pushing ahead with development.

“The manifesto pledge is something that will be fought over in the run-up to the next election, and really this is all about empowering local communities to decide whether they want local energy schemes. Investment is taking place now, more is promised and will be delivered, and the big change lies in empowering local people.”